To extend or not to extend

[Coolbeansjeans28]

In a position where we are either going to extend or move to a bigger house. Just looking for peoples experiences of actually how much hassle doing an extension is (im talking 2 story, extra bedroom, kitchen remodel etc so its not just adding a sun room!). Both work full time with young kids. Also unsure if we would actually have enough money to do all the work we want in the extension but for arguments sake let's say we do. All I hear is bad things about them!! Looking for experiences either way.

Can I suggest a sheet of lined A4, line down the middle, pros plus costs in one column, cons on the other side.
The potential costs of moving can add up to a lot and the money is single use. Stamp duty, survey, removal company, estate agents fees, and remember some of those might be multiple times if chains fall through.
Can you take a few walks or drives round your local area and cheekily knock on doors of recently extended houses for recommendations or don't touch them with a barge pole opinions?

@Coolbeansjeans28 we renovated our whole house. It needed a completely new layout downstairs, with extra bedroom and two bathrooms upstairs, so both floors unusable for a long period of time.

My experience from this is
a) whatever the builders quote, double it! There’s always extras along the way.
b) move out if you can, the job will be quicker as they can down tools without making it habitable each evening. We did (myself, DH and 2 kids) and it was a great decision. We didn’t even notice as we were not disrupted in our daily lives.

Was it worth it? Absolutely!

We chose to extend. Loved the area and the great schools but if we hadn’t we would have chosen to move. So if you love where you live then extend, if not just move 😁

On Matt leave and have a 4 year old, we love the area and want the schools and couldn’t find a suitable home, making a two bed into a 3…. And a study. Double wrap basically. It’s been slow to start so far but it’s a headache.
i really don’t want to give up the area so im putting up with it x